It is going to vary a lot between each unique athlete, but the basic approach I take is I do not waste energy when I reach a certain speed and wind resistance starts to play a larger factor.

Just as an example of works for me:

A. If I am going 26 mph on a very gradual downhill, and I am putting out 150 watts, I am not going to increase to 220 watts just to go 28 mph.

B. If I am approaching the top of a small rolling hill at 17 mph from momentum, and I am putting out 150 watts, you better believe that I am going to crank it to 250 watts and keep that speed up over the crest of the hill, on the top of it, and until the next rolling downhill gets back to 26 mph.

There are huge efficiency and time savings in example B, where as example A is probably not worth the effort.

Hope this helps.

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"If it costs you 30 minutes at Maryland so what" -dwreal

There are tricks to it and the only way is to practice it, from my experience. Trying to carry as much momentum into and up the hill is one of the keys and it takes more power and capacity than flat land riding provides. Shifting a gear too late is a killer for me. Getting back to speed immediately on downhills allows you to go faster and rest some after maxing out on speed.

I don't have the nerves to practice downhill curves at high speeds like some can do. No help there.

Where in OH are you from? I'm from Defiance OH in flat NW OH. The county was very flat with the only hills being overpasses or coming up and away from a river. It was big disadvantage racing as a junior and not having the smarts, power and rhythm to hit the hills right. Even though I'm training on hills most of the summer now, I could still get better at it.

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

Having the fastest possible time in a hilly course and having the smartest time in a hilly tri are two different things.

To have the fastest time on hills your general rule of thumb is to ride harder when you’re going slower. So if your avg power over 6 hours is 200, going uphill might go 220 and downhill 180. The exact difference will depend on the grade and the length. Also keep going hard over the top until you hit your top speed coming down the other side.

For a tri, however, the recommendation is to keep your fluctuations at a minimum to save your legs for the run (ie NP very close to AP). So go a bit harder uphill but not much more than 210 maybe even less.

Bottom line your plan will depend on if it’s a tri or solo ride.

Like others have said but in different words.....its about momentum. Ex. if you are going 20mph at 200 watts to get over a roller it and it takes only 150 watts to go 20mph down the back side your maintaining your momentum with less effort. Don't go harder down hill to be faster only to burn your matches before you have to get up the next hill.

You also have to shift gears....A LOT! It helps if you have electronic shifting. You can shift through several gears to maintain your momentum going up a hill/roller and back down. If you are riding hard up a hill, powering down the back side to get some free speed, to get up the next hill...…..you're doing it wrong.

One of the keys to efficient riding with hills is to crest the hill, not get to the top and take a break to recover as the road flattens or begins to tip back down. Climb in a sustainable rhythm that allows you to keep pushing over the top and don't start coasting til you're well up to speed on the way down. By that point you'll be coasting where the speed to be gained by hard pedaling is pretty marginal as previous poster said. If the road goes up and plateaus out flat, save enough strength to get back up to flat cruising speed once you've finished climbing.

Thanks for the good tips everyone...really appreciate the suggestions. I live east of Columbus, OH so no shortage of hilly rides to practice. Probably the biggest takeaway for me is the reinforcement that I should be riding with a power meter. Any suggestions on a good one that won't break the bank?

Yes, get a power meter. I've found single sided meters on eBay for <$300. I've got a Stages on my tri bike and a 4iiii on my roadie (FWIW, I like the 4iiii better).

What I found from using the PM is that I naturally push the uphills too hard (frequently above FTP) and have much lower wattage on the gentle downhills. For example on a 1km, 1.5% false flat I found that in training I naturally go "up" at 250W, but "down" at 175W. The PM is key to helping me balance my output, especially on short climbs and rollers where HR is too laggy.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Also a 54 year old MOP’er (at least on the bike); I live near Dayton with plenty of hills and rollers, and here is what I do..

First...I never coast. Downhill is free speed, especially if you are not as lean as you could be (like me); use your extra weight to advantage going downhill. Now, you can still get a bit of break by backing off the watts (like the other posters have said) but you’re giving up a lot of momentum by coasting. The only time I coast is if I’m already in the small cog and spinning out...then I’ll tuck as tight as possible and coast a bit. This is pretty rare though and requires a long downhill section.

Second, once I get to the bottom of the hill and my speed starts to drop off, I’ll get back on the watts. As I start to go back up the next hill, I’ll start downshifting once my cadence drops off. If its a really short hill, or my momentum is carrying me close to the top, I just push a bit more and crest it with some momentum, but if it’s longer, then I’ll try to use every last bit of my momentum until it’s time to get in a gear that allows me to spin up the hill.

Try this on your next hilly training ride, and I think you’ll find that you’re not really saving any energy by coasting because you are losing a lot of momentum that you could use to get up the next hill. Even if you don’t have a hill to go up, you can also keep up a speed much higher than you normally could by using your momentum on the flats to gain some time.

A power meter makes this a bit easier, but you can certainly do it via RPE as well.

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

The answer to this questions about hills is very very very simple,

It is cover in this math formula

Watts/kilos

More Watts will help you
Less Kilos will help you

Everything else in terms of gearing and when to coast and tuck and when to hammer etc etc...its all fine tuning, but the most important thing is gaining watts and losing kilos. I know lots of guys who live in the flattest places on the planet who are monster hill riders just because there watts per kilo ratio is awesome!